Arcadia Farm

Arcadia Farm is located just a few short miles from downtown Washington, DC, on the historic grounds of Woodlawn Estate. Arcadia’s demonstration farm and educational children’s garden currently encompasses four acres, providing a sustainable model of agriculture to new farmers, students and the public through hands-on community engagement.

Arcadia Farm has three unique program areas:

Education and Community Engagement

We teach new and aspiring farmers how to grow food using environmentally conscious methods through our farmer mentorship program. We also educate students about healthy eating and growing practices through interactive school field trips, and encourage community involvement through regular volunteer days. For more information, please visit our Volunteer Opportunities page.

Environmental Stewardship

We grow in harmony with nature, using only sustainable growing practices such as cover cropping, integrated pest management, low tillage, composting, crop rotation and no synthetic sprays.

Food Access

We are committed to increasing access to healthy, farm-fresh food in underserved neighborhoods. We do this by growing the majority of the vegetables for Arcadia’s Mobile Market, which provides affordable food to low income, low food access communities.

Arcadia Farm was established because the national trends in agriculture are disturbing and unsustainable.

The average age of U.S. farm operators increased from fifty-five in 2002 to fifty-seven in 2007. In that same time, the number of farmers under twenty-five years of age decreased by 30%.

Small farms are disappearing to make room for new developments and large, industrial farm operations.

Unsustainable farming practices are one of the major factors contributing to environmental degradation like erosion, polluted waterways, and a changing climate.

There is a need to engage the farm community, beginning farmers, and the public to show that small-scale, sustainable farming can be economically viable, beneficial to the environment, and a source of healthy food for the community.